BENNINGTON — A North Bennington man will serve three to six years after admitting to an attempt to strangling an 8-year-old in May and attempting to prevent a woman from reporting the incident.

William J. Borden, 35, pleaded guilty in Bennington criminal court on Friday to a felony count of first-degree aggravated domestic assault and a felony charge of obstructing justice.

As part of the plea agreement, the state dismissed two other felony counts of first-degree aggravated domestic assault.

Bennington County Deputy State’s Attorney Jennifer Barrett said Borden could have faced a longer sentence but the state was willing to make a deal because Borden took “immediate accountability.”

Borden was arraigned on the domestic assault charges on June 7 and the obstruction charge on June 19. The hearing on Friday was scheduled to determine whether Borden would have a chance to be released on bail pending the outcome of the case, but a plea arrangement was reached instead.

Police said in an affidavit they spoke with the child June 3. The child said Borden had strangled him on three occasions, at the child’s home, in a car after a baseball game and at the home of an unidentified witness in Shaftsbury.

The witness told police that Borden tried to intimidate her and convince her to hang up while she was trying to talk on the phone to the police about the incident.

Borden has three previous felony convictions for aggravated domestic assault from 1998 and 2004 and a felony conviction for unlawful restraint from 2004.

He had been charged as a habitual offender, a sentencing enhancement which can be filed against someone with three or more felony convictions and which would allow a judge, if the defendant is convicted of another felony, to impose a sentence of up to life in prison.